How innovation improves the lives of hearing-impaired Spaniards
Researchers in Spain are about to give more than 100,000 people with hearing impairments a new lease on life. The development of a novel visual interpretation system will enable deaf people to hold discussions in the language they normally use. Hundreds of signs make up the Spanish sign language, and the CVC-UAB (Centre de Visió per Computador - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) researchers chose more than 20 of them to develop their innovation tool. To some degree, signs vary from user to user. Keeping this in mind, CVC-UAB researchers Drs Sergio Escalera and Petia Radeva and Professor Jordi Vitrià performed a number of trials with different people to help the system to take account of this variability. By using the signs that were recognised by the system, people with hearing impairments could maintain a basic conversation, such as asking for directions, according to the researchers. 'For them it is a non-artificial way of communicating and at the same time they can engage with people who do not speak sign language since the system translates the symbols into words in real time,' Dr Escalera explained. Included in the hardware is a video camera capable of recording image sequences when it detects that a user wants to make a consultation. The team said a computer vision and automatic learning system picks up face, hand and arm movements, and screen scrolling, and includes them into a classification system that identifies each movement with the word associated with the sign. A unique feature of this system is that it can benefit people who use other sign languages, not just Spanish sign language. The system can be modified to meet their needs as well because the methodology used is common. The signs used in that particular language would simply have to be programmed into the system. The team said it is possible to scale the amount of signs the system recognises. However, they pointed out that because of the new data it could be harder to differentiate between the signs. Experts suggest that new applications being developed, just like this one from CVC-UAB, need to be extremely precise during the identification phase. The researchers must also deal with the complexity of the applications' configurations, since the surroundings in which they will be used include various physiognomies as well as changes in light and shadow, while different sign language speakers 'speak' at different speeds,. While other projects tackling this issue emerged in the past, they either failed or did not pass muster because of the high complexity of variabilities in uncontrolled surroundings. The Spanish project differs in that it set up a fixed point in which individuals formed the signs. Another key aspect is that the Spanish system avoids having varied focus points during the recording process. The system has already been presented as a prototype in the final phase of a European project. The Spanish team is currently working on new project phases, including the use of two cameras that can identify even more complex signs and complementing information with facial characteristics. Supporting the researchers in their quest are members of the Catalan Federation of Deaf People (FESOCA)
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Spain